Why did electric carmaker Tesla Motors lose its trade-secrets case against rival Fisker Automotive? We're no legal eagles, but a tipster suggests Tesla general counsel Craig Harding was distracted by his intramural extracurriculars:

You might want to take a closer look at the General Counsel for Tesla Motors. He has quite the reputation as the unsuccessful ladies man amongst the women of Circle Star. He often takes unlucky ladies to Zibibbo in Palo Alto. I have seen him there a few times with very unhappy looking dates. If he spent less time chasing women and more time doing his job, perhaps the Fisker case would have gone the other way.

Tesla is headquartered on Circle Star Way in San Carlos, Calif. Perhaps Harding's dining companions are merely unhappy with his job performance. The arbitrator found that Tesla's case against Fisker was "baseless and neither brought nor pursued in good faith." Arbitration terms kept Harding out of the Fisker case, which was mostly handled by outside counsel, another tipster tells us. So no reflection, perhaps, on his legal skills. But that tells us why Harding has so much free time available for meals with female colleagues. Update: Harding denies that he has gone on dates with female colleagues at Zibibbo, and says the one time he went to the restaurant this year, he was with a reporter, not a Tesla coworker:

I have been to Zibibbo only once this year, on Saturday, June 14 with Lisa Kreiger, a reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and fellow Duke alum. Lisa has indicated she had a perfectly fine evening, and as a journalist is quite happy to verify as much. I have not flirted with or dated any female colleagues at Tesla. Of course, the date at Zibibbo in June did not affect the outcome of the arbitration with Fisker that began in September.